Three wise men  

Like three shining pinnacles emerging from a sea of dross and doublespeak, three wise men spoke today. Professor Donald Light described the pharmaceutical industry as a "market for lemons" - one in which the seller knows much more than the buyer about the product, and takes advantage of this fact. "Sometimes drug companies hide or downplay information about serious side-effects of new drugs and overstate the drugs' benefits," said Prof Light, a professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, US. "Then, they spend two to three times more on marketing than on research to persuade doctors to prescribe these new drugs. Doctors may get misleading information and then misinform patients about the risks of a new drug. It's really a two-tier market for lemons." He estimated 85% of new drugs offer few if any...